The Chicago Cubs will be without starting pitcher Jon Lester for the near future, but the club is breathing a sigh of relief that the left-hander's absence shouldn't be long term.
Lester was to be placed on the 10-day disabled list Friday with lat tightness and arm fatigue. The veteran left Thursday's game in the second inning and underwent tests with doctors later that night.
Cubs President Theo Epstein said Friday that Lester is expected to miss "only a start or two."
That would appear to be the best-case scenario for a team that is battling to stay atop the Central Division.
"(With) the fatigue factor (and) the tightness factor, let's just give him a break right now," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "The guy gets out there pretty hard all the time. He's been kind of our rock for a couple of years now."
Maddon said fellow left-hander Mike Montgomery will take Lester's slot in the rotation.
"I don't want to see anybody get hurt, especially our ace," Montgomery said. "It's a challenge. I'm looking forward to going out there and helping the team win. If they tell me I'm starting then I'm going to go out there and prepare and be ready to help this team get to the playoffs."
Montgomery is 2-3 with a 5.18 ERA in eight starts and 1-3 with a 2.57 ERA in 27 relief outings.
"He's good about bouncing back and forth," Maddon said. "He's been invaluable to us the last couple of years. He definitely has the ability. He's got four above-average major-league pitches and not many people do."
The Cubs can survive without Lester, who has been their horse since signing a six-year, $155 million deal before the 2015 season. But it won't be easy. He has pitched 200-plus innings and made 32 starts in each of the last two seasons and was on pace to reach those numbers again in 2017. He has nine straight seasons of 31 or more starts, and eight years of 200-plus innings.
Thursday's start in which he gave up nine runs (seven earned) in the second inning, helped push his earned-run average to 4.37, his highest since he finished with a 4.82 ERA in 2012 in Boston.
Lester was videotaped in the dugout having a brief conversation with pitching coach Chris Bosio in which Bosio makes a gesture like he was being blamed for Lester's poor outing. Lester then walks away.
The video was on the CSN website Friday. The Cubs said it was just Lester voicing frustration, and there is no problem between the two.
"They had their little discussion about different things right there," Maddon said. "That's something that I'd prefer not talking about."
Maddon later added, "there's nothing going on right now regarding that."
Meanwhile, reliever Justin Grimm is also headed to the DL with an infection in his right index finger. Relievers Felix Pena and RobZastryzny were to be recalled from Iowa.
